From: International Affairs Review | The Elliott School of International Affairs
By Bobby Shields, Senior Staff Writer
The United States has a severe shortage of cybersecurity professionals. A jobs report from the first quarter of 2017 revealed that 209,000 cybersecurity jobs in the United States remain unfilled. Demand for these jobs is expected to grow by over 50 percent through 2018. As threats in cyberspace increase in frequency and impact, a widening workforce gap will make the United States and its global partners more vulnerable.
This workforce shortage creates acute risks for critical infrastructure owners and operators in the United States. While private entities own the vast majority of these assets, and are responsible for their safety and security, many do not have sufficient cybersecurity professionals to provide adequate protection for their networks and internet-connected industrial control systems. At the same time, threats to critical infrastructure are expanding and the confluence of these factors could have severe security implications for the US.
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